The Best Valentine’s Gift

So – on this Valentine’s Day – are you going to give your loved one – a present? Maybe a dozen red roses? Or a box of chocolates? Maybe even a bottle of champagne, and dinner on the town. Or maybe all of the above. And that’s great. Because every one of those gifts says ‘I Love You.’ And that’s what Valentine’s Day is all about.

But – are you ready for another idea? A different kind of idea? Something that also says “I Love You…” but just not in the traditional way?

Well, here we go.

Imagine on Valentine’s Day, you hand your loved one a gift box, nicely-wrapped, with a bow on top. They unwrap it, open the it, and dig down inside. And they pull out?

A brand new, beautiful, smoke detector.

Yep, that’s right. A smoke detector. But not just any smoke detector. Because this one also has a carbon monoxide detector built in.

Now get ready – because you will get ‘the look.’ “What? You got me a smoke detector for Valentine’s Day?”

And if they do look confused – just tell them why. Tell that that nothing is more important than their lives and safety. And this gift will be there to protect them, night and day – even when you’re not there. OK, it’s not traditional, but it does say “I love you,” loud and clear.

Now, when you go shopping for a smoke detector these days – you will find something new. And that is? They all last ten years. No more swapping out batteries. The batteries are built in – and they will provide power for an entire decade.

The reason is – people would forget to change the batteries. Even when the smoke detector would start to do that ‘low battery’ chirp…many people just disconnected it, with the intention of changing them – soon. But many times, they would STILL forget.

It was so easy to forget – we created a reminder. Turn the clocks back? Change the battery in your smoke detector. Turn the clocks forward! Change the battery!

But people still forgot. And a smoke detector without a battery is just like no smoke detector at all…it can be dangerous, and even deadly.

So they started making 10 year smoke detectors. First Alert, Kidde, it’s hard to find one these days that is NOT good for ten years.

As I said, many detect both smoke, and carbon monoxide. And those units speak – they’ll call out ‘fire,’ or ‘carbon monoxide,’ in addition to the sirens.

They also install differently. Some of the units I’ve put up are activated by the screws that hold them to the wall…drive that screw in? They start working. For – ten years.

So, sure. It’s not the most romantic Valentine’s Day present. Or is it? You could say that telling your loved ones – “I want you to be safe.” is very romantic.

And the other thing is – since the new types of smoke detectors last 10 years – you can’t really give one year after year…just…once a decade. The other nine years, sure. Go for the flowers, the chocolates and the champagne.